Apr 18, 2009

Do you ever have those pity party days? How about pity party weeks? Months? Years? Okay, I'm kidding now, but you know those times where you just want to complain, even though you know nothing is really too big for God. Oh my goodness, was I having one of those weeks. It was a circumstance that came out of nowhere and somehow my faith was taking a long, fat nap that day. I started to worry, no that's not right, I started to seriously panic. My mind went to worst case scenario, and my emotions were ...let's just say, not very becoming of me.

Praise Jesus that when I have those times, He tends to knock me right out of my desperation pretty quickly. However this time, He let me go on and on to a friend (a full out venting session...with TEARS! Oh the embarrassment! Not to mention I was hormonal(pms)too! Then about 24 hours later, God just poured His heavenly balm over me in a way that was so like his awesome Heavenly Self to do. He gave me a bazillion verses during my Esther week 8 video session that left me absolutely speechless, and most of all, BREATHLESS! Don't you love when Jesus shows us who He is through His Word and we can't even come up with words to adequately thank Him. I sure do.

I'm not going to just soak up all this good news he gave me and then not share with you. Even though your current situation is not the same as mine, I know it will encourage you nonetheless.

The first verse is Isaiah 30:18 "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait on Him." Beth Moore shared that the words "longs" and "wait" in this verse in Hebrew, both mean the same thing-wait. God waits on us and we are to wait on Him. I just love that! He waits on me to get my act together, so can't I wait on Him to work things out for good? I know He could fix my problems instantly, but what kind of faith would I develop and why would I need to trust if things always went according to the way I want. I would much rather be a warrior than a spoiled brat. This brings me to my next verse.

Deuteronomy 33:29 "Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you and you will trample down their high places." Beth reminded me through this verse that even though most of us think we are wimpy and helpless, God says we are His People and that our enemies will cower before us and be trampled by us. Why? Because we are a people like no other, we are a people saved by the LORD! That makes us capable of some major booty kicking of the enemy. Why do I always forget this?

Things are not hopeless. God brings hope. Things are not impossible. God does the impossible. Things on this earth are temporary. God is EVERLASTING. Let's bring honor to our Saviour by remembering this when times are tough and struggles are overwhelming. After all in Isaiah 49:16 God tell us "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." And there is absoluely NO place I would rather be!

Susie, my computer has been on the blink with a virus and life has been WAY BEYOND normal crazy, so I haven't checked in much. I just want you to know that for just these few minutes, God allowed me to get through and has blessed me BIG TIME through your blog! You have NO IDEA how the words of your last two posts are IDENTICAL to my thoughts and struggles RIGHT NOW. I so knew but still needed to be reminded of God telling me those exact same things about stress. And your list of five? I seriously could have written the exact same thing WORD FOR WORD! I have no idea how I can adore someone so much whom I have never actually beheld in person, but one day even if in Heaven, I will be looking for you to say "Hello, and thanks." You are a wonderful woman. Be blessed this Lord's Day my friend!

As one who lived many years in a pity-party place, having in the past two years have God teach me much of what you wrote, I thank you for sharing such important news! God truly is GOOD and His mercies are new every morning... sometimes we just have to look harder for them ;-)

Just had to share a quick thing, whenever my mom finds herself in pity party mode, soon after, she sees a blind person. That jump starts her into ok, God, I get it, I'm blessed and gets her out of pity party mode. It's pretty amazing. My sister, my aunts, several of my cousins, and myself have all seen this happen.

I enjoyed reading your blog, Susie! I belive the Old Testament is a so overlooked section of God's Word in the Body Of Christ. God gave us 66 books and He expects us to study them ALL!! Thanks for encouraging your readers to dig into the Old Testament!